What about the long-term unemployed?
Friday produced another round of ugly job numbers as the country’s unemployment rate inched up to 9.2 percent. Yet in Washington, the conversation remains fixed squarely on a compromise to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Have lawmakers forgotten about the country’s unemployed? And what about the “99’ers,” the individuals who have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and are left with no government assistance? Where do they fit into the picture? One of those people who have been unemployed for a long period is Alexandra Jarrin. A veteran of corporate America, she has been unemployed since March 2008 and is currently living in a motel in Vermont. Dan Gross, economics editor and columnist for Yahoo! Finance, talks about how the government has responded.
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